Oil sands land reclamation

Reclamation is the process of attempting to return previously used land from oil sands mining or tailings storage back to its original, natural state. The concept behind reclamation is the goal of "returning land back to nature". Disturbances that are a result of oil sands mining have significant impacts on the land, and reclamation is just one way to reduce this impact.

Reclamation for open pit mines can be difficult simply because of the large area that is disturbed in these operations. Once an area is no longer valid for mining activities, it is countoured for drainage. After this, the topsoil is replaced and vegetation is planted. Soil and vegetation are assessed frequently to monitor their health. Remediation of tailings ponds is an important but difficult part of the reclamation process.

Reclamation for an in situ well is much more straightforward than with an open pit mine. Once the well is decommmissioned it can take about six years to fully reclaim the land. To reclaim the land, the well must be capped and the equipment removed. As well, soil must be replaced and vegetation replanted in order to clean up any contaminatnts that could remain from the well. This process includes monitoring, seeding, fertilizing, tree planting, seed collecting, topsoil salvaging and replacing, and landform creation and contouring. One benefit of in situ mining is that it disturbs much less land than surface mining efforts. In situ's land disturbance is only 10-15% of a similar sized mining operation and produces no tailings ponds.

Reclamation Efforts

Attempts to reclaim the land disturbed by oil sands mining has become more of a focus recently. Although efforts are being made, much of the area disturbed is not certified as reclaimed by the government. There are several different levels of reclaimed land exists. Currently, there are only 1.04 square kilometers of certified reclaimed land, which are returned to the government as public land.

Permanently reclaimed land makes up about 50.42 square kilometers and includes areas where land design, soil placement, and revegetation are complete. It can take up to 15 years for land to become permanently reclaimed as ecosystems must be monitored and soil composition must be tested.

Temporary reclaimed land has been revegetated with grass for the purpose of erosion control, and are not truly reclaimed at all. They exist essentially to prevent the land from washing away as they may see future disturbance. There are 12.27 square kilometers of temporary reclaimed land.

Overburden - soil and organic material stored from excavation - has been placed on 14.47 square kilometers of land, and there is about 3.72 square kilometers of land where reclamation can begin. Overall, all of this reclaimed land should be compared to the 559.02 square kilometers of land that is disturbed and still in active us as part of a facility. This does not include 204.35 square kilometers of cleared land, primarily previously forested areas that have been cleared for development.

One problem with reclamation attempts is that there is a lack of regulated standards about what reclamation involves.

Interactive Map

It can be beneficial to understand the comparative size of all currently used land and reclaimed land. Below is a labelled, interactive map showing the mining pits, tailings ponds, some reclaimed area, and the Athabasca river. Take a note of the scale on the bottom right-hand side of the map (this will change when zooming in and out, but gives an idea of the size of mines and tailings ponds).